


Win a Date With Sage Gaston

by lizandletdie



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Romantic Comedy, movie star gaston
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-09 12:51:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7802566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizandletdie/pseuds/lizandletdie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle French and her best friend Ruby Lucas are absolutely in love with the movie star Sage Gaston, so when a magazine runs a contest to win a date with the actor of course they both enter. Of course, neither one expects Belle to actually be the winner, which really complicates things with her maybe mutual crush, Mr. Gold.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This won't be too long (maybe three more chapters) I just couldn't get the idea out of my head, so idk.

“It’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever seen,” Ruby giggled loud enough that Belle felt compelled to shush her friend even though they were both looking at the same magazine on the circulation desk of the library. “I don’t see why you’re so excited,” she continued. “It’s not like either of us is going to win.”

“And why not?” Ruby said. “It’s gotta be somebody, why not one of us? Specifically, why not me?”

“Like he’d date you,” Belle said. “You remember when he was dating that girl from those surfer movies. I’m clearly more his type.”

Ruby made an affronted noise and took her magazine back and Belle smugly went back to scanning in books from the return. She was pretty excited in spite of herself even though she didn’t want to admit it to Ruby. They were both absolutely in love with the actor Sage Gaston. They had been since they’d seen him in _Her Handsome Hero_ , and they’d been following his career (and frequent tabloid appearances) avidly and now _Hollywood Weekly_ was running a contest to actually fly out to California for a real live date.

“Do you think you get a kiss on this date?” Ruby asked, and when Belle glanced over she saw her friend with her nose practically pressed to the page with the fine print on it. “I mean, it says that it includes dinner, airfare from anyplace in the continental United States, and a hotel for the weekend. But it doesn’t say who’s going to be staying in the hotel. So is there a possibility we could actually get lucky?”

Belle was spared needing to answer by Mr. Gold coming up and setting a couple books on the counter.

“Good morning, Mr. Gold,” Belle said, taking his card and scanning it to pull up his account. “How are you today?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” he replied. “Dare I ask what’s gotten Miss Lucas so excited?”

“Only the greatest thing ever in the history of celebrity gossip,” Ruby replied, holding the magazine up so he could see the cover.

“‘Win a date with Sage Gaston?’” Mr. Gold read out loud. “The actor?”

“Belle and I love him,” Ruby said. “It’s the coolest thing in the world! Belle and I are both going to enter.”

“Oh really?” he asked, looking back to Belle who was hoping she wasn’t blushing too badly while she scanned his books. “Well, good luck to the both of you then.”

“Thanks,” Belle said as she handed him his books back. “These are due on the twenty-seventh.”

“Thank you, Miss French” he said as he took the books, and she may have been imagining it but she thought she saw his eyes light up for a split second when his hand brushed hers as he took the books from her hands and left the library.

“You know he’s got a thing for you, right?” Ruby said, flipping her page.

“Shut up.”

“What? It’s true.”

“Don’t you have to go back to work?”

“Probably,” Ruby said, closing her magazine. “Fine. I’ll see you later so we can get our contest entries ready.”

Belle nodded and waved to her friend as she left for the diner where she worked. Mr. Gold’s crush on her was definitely not something she really wanted to think about too much. He’d never said anything about it to her, and she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about him, either, and that seemed like the sort of thing she should figure out before she made any decisions about her and the enigmatic pawnbroker.

 

She’d almost forgotten about her entry into the magazine contest when her rejection letter came. It was a busy day at the library, though, and she didn’t have time to look at exactly what free stickers or subscription offer or whatever it was the tabloid had offered her was. There was a class of third graders that came in for storytime, then the senior center bus after that, and by the time Ruby dropped by for lunch Belle _still_ hadn’t looked through her envelope.

“Hey Belle,” Ruby said cheerfully, holding up a paper bag. “I brought you a grilled cheese for lunch.”

“Thank you so much,” Belle said, snatching the food from her friend. “I haven’t had five minutes to myself all day. I didn’t even have time to look through the rejection letter from Sage Gaston yet.”

“Rejection letter?” Ruby said, coming to sit at the circulation desk and picking up the stack of unopened mail.

“Yeah,” Belle said. “The big red envelope.”

“Uh, Belle? My rejection letter didn’t come in an envelope like this.”

“What?”

“It was a post card. There’s something _in_ this.”

Belle snatched the envelope out of Ruby’s hands faster than she’d thought possible and tore into it with no regard for neatness. By the time she’d wrestled the papers out of the shredded envelope her heart was pounding in her chest and she was having a hard time focusing on the words on the paper, but she managed to pick out her name, _congratulations_ , and the phrase _boarding pass_ before she was screaming so loud that everyone was looking at her.

Ruby snatched the paper out of her hands and then she was screaming, too, and they were both jumping excitedly out of their chairs.

“ _You won!!_ ” Ruby shrieked, pulling her into a hug. “Oh my God you won!!”

Belle grabbed the letter back, letting Ruby hold her up while she read the details. She was going to Los Angeles. She was going to dinner with Sage Gaston. She was going to be driven to the restaurant _in his car_. It hadn’t even occurred to her that she was going to _win_. There must have been thousands of entries and hers had _won_.

“Is everything alright?” Mr. Gold asked as he set his books down on the counter. She’d forgotten he was even in the building.

“Belle won the contest,” Ruby said before Belle could even attempt to answer him. “She’s going to fly out to LA to meet Sage Gaston! Isn’t that the most exciting thing you’ve ever heard?”

“Yes,” he said. “It’s very exciting. Congratulations, Miss French.”

“Thank you,” Belle said, trying to calm herself down long enough to go back to work. She still had to finish her shift at the library and there were a few weeks before she’d be able to go to LA and she was going to have to get her legs waxed and definitely get her hair done and buy a new dress and there was just _so_ much to do and her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Let me get your books,” she said hurriedly, dropping his card a couple times before she was able to scan it and get the books checked out to his account. It felt weird to be talking to him with a piece of paper in her hand saying she was going to be dating an actor. No, she wasn’t going to be _dating_ Sage Gaston – she was going out on a date with him and it was a publicity stunt and she should calm the hell down.

“Thank you,” he muttered when she handed him the books back before slinking away. A part of her wanted to run after him and apologize, but she couldn’t decide what she had to apologize for.

“This is the most exciting thing to ever happen to anyone in this town,” Ruby said. She was still flipping through the letter happily. “You’re going to be in the paper! Oh, man, Belle promise me that you’ll invite me to your Hollywood wedding so I can pull a Pippa Middleton and win over the media with my ass and then I can write a book about entertaining and date celebrities.”

 

Gold locked the door on the pawn shop as soon as he got through it and flipped the sign to closed. So the girl of his dreams was going on a date with some ridiculously coiffed movie star. It was bad enough she was lusting after him, did she have to win the damn contest, too? There was no way he could stack up to that. Not like he’d ever even tried, but still. What was the point in competing when he knew it’d only lose?

It was already ridiculous for a man his age to have a crush, but going to the library as often as he did just to rent books he never actually read so that he could have an excuse to talk to the librarian was beyond insane. He should have asked her out months ago. What was the worst that was going to happen? What had he honestly been afraid of? That she’d turn out to be a horror movie spider monster? A serial killer?

So now the girl of his dreams was going on the date with the man of hers and Gold was jealous as hell. He was probably overreacting – it was a publicity stunt, wasn’t it? She’d probably see him for half an hour, take a picture, and fly back home the next day. And then he could go back to stalking her like a creepy old man who needed to learn boundaries.

 

Belle hadn’t ever been so nervous in her entire life. She and Ruby had been through every boutique in Storybrooke and done some online shopping before she finally found a dress that she wouldn’t be embarrassed to wear on a date with a movie star. She’d met with Sage’s publicist at the airport and was given an itinerary for the weekend. She was going to be picked up for her date at seven, they’d go to dinner where the magazine would take some ‘candid’ photos, then back to her hotel. In the morning, a car would come pick her up for a proper photoshoot and an interview about the magical evening she’d had with her favorite movie star.

She was ready early, because you don’t keep a movie star waiting, but that left her with the unfortunate issue of what the hell to do to keep herself busy until then. Her stomach was doing flips and she was too anxious to sit. At last, she settled for texting Ruby though that was only sort of distracting.

 _Think you’re gonna get a kiss?_ Ruby asked.

_Probably not. It’s a publicity stunt for the magazine, I doubt we’ll even talk that much._

_Oh please, he’s going to take one look at you and be totally into you. What would you do if he went for the kiss, anyway?_

_I don’t know._ Belle sent back. She’d been thinking about it for days. The second the reality of the situation hit her, she’d been thinking about it. It was probably desperate as hell, but she really wanted to do it except when she didn’t.

_I’m just saying, you should do what makes you happy. How many times are you going to have this chance?_

Which was a really good point. It wasn’t every day girls from a tiny town in Maine got a chance to go on a real live date with a famous movie star? Her dating options were usually a car mechanic or, on a good day, maybe a guy who worked at the bank. Even Mr. Gold hadn’t ever gotten around to asking her out, and for Storybrooke he was a pretty good catch with both a job _and_ a house. But she also wasn’t sure she was comfortable having sex with someone she’d just met that evening.

There was a knock at the door and she almost threw her phone as she jumped to her feet to run and answer it. What did you even say to a movie star who was going to take you out to dinner?

“Hi,” she blurted out as soon as she had the door open and before she even registered that Sage Gaston was really standing there.

“You must be Belle,” he said, offering her his hand and a disarming smile. “I’m Sage.”

“Uh-huh,” she replied dully, hardly believing she was actually meeting somebody she had seen in movies! Real movies in a theater!

He glanced down and she realized he was still waiting for her to shake his hand and she grabbed it quickly as he was dropping his hand.

“I hope you’re excited,” he said once he released her hand. “It’s going to be a really great night.”

“Yeah,” she sighed and he just chuckled good naturedly.

“Great! My car is downstairs whenever you’re ready to go.”

“I’m ready now,” she replied, grabbing her purse and joining him in the hall. “I can’t wait.”


	2. Chapter 2

Sage had the coolest car that Belle had ever seen in her life which was a fact she had awkwardly blurted out the moment she’d seen it. He was so nice about it, though. He just smiled with that really cute grin of his that she remembered from his role in _Two For a Penny_ where he’d played a single dad looking for a stepmom for his daughter Penny. She and Ruby had seen it in theater on Valentine’s Day and then bought the DVD. She’d used a screencap from it as her Twitter profile picture for awhile.

“I really like cars,” he said almost bashfully. “They’re a passion of mine.”

“I know,” she said before she could catch herself and he looked at her quizzically and she just about melted. “It was um, it’s in a lot of your profiles. In the magazines. And press tours.”

He laughed then, but it wasn’t cruel. His eyes were crinkling up at the corners a little bit and he was smiling.

“Of course. I should have figured you’d have known,” he said. “It was a fan contest. I keep forgetting that.”

“Sorry, I’m kind of a dork,” she said. “I just really like your movies.”

“Oh please, don’t apologize for that. Thank _you_ for liking them.”

God, he was so freaking charming! How was it possible he was exactly what she’d have thought from all his films and interviews? Belle was a little surprised with how relaxed she was with him, although maybe that was because how much like his movie characters he was. It was almost like a real date right up until they arrived at the restaurant and were greeted by a swarm of paparazzi.

“You ready for this?” he asked, gesturing towards the horde of cameras.

“Yeah, I think so….you really live like this?”

“You get used to it. Just keep your head down if you don’t want to talk and I’ll be right there the whole time.”

“Okay,” Belle said, trying to sound more sure than she felt. “Just keep my head down. Got it.”

“You just have to find your bravery,” he said with a wink before he let himself out of the car, and it took her until he was opening her door for her to remember where she’d heard it – he’d said it to his love interest in _The Foxhole_ where he’d played a baseball player who was conscripted in WWII. He’d dated his costar for six months and a stay in the Bahamas before it had ended. He’d said it to a woman he’d gone to the Bahamas with, and now he’d said it to her.

She was still grinning like a loon when he helped her out of the car and she didn’t stop until they were safely inside the restaurant and being shown to their table. It was perfect. Absolutely perfect. The food was amazing, the wine was the best she’d ever had, and he was really charming. She had always hoped he would be charming and it felt like a fairy tale to her.

By the time they were on their way out, even the paparazzi had become exciting instead of terrifying, and she started answering the questions they were shouting out to her. The date was going _great_ , her name was _Belle,_ L.A. was _amazing_ , yes it _was_ the very best night of her life...Sage was waving to the cameras and smiling, ad answering the occasional question about how pretty she was but for the most part he let her have the moment.

Finally, the valet returned with their car and he had the door open for her when one last question came.

“How about a kiss for the camera?”

Sage looked at her with a smile and a shrug, and the words _once in a lifetime chance_ flew through her head so fast that what else could she do but nod and meet him halfway? The cameras going off were deafening, and she saw the lights flashing behind her eyelids, but that just made it all even more surreal. Just for tonight, she was famous.

He drove her back to her hotel and walked her to her door. They parted with a kiss on the cheek and she fell into the bed with a giggle she was glad nobody else was privy to. In the morning, she would have her interview with the magazine and then it was back home to her real life, but for tonight she had lived the fantasy.

 

Felix Gold was having a really crappy week. It was bad enough to know that his secret crush on the librarian was unrequited, but literally everyone in town seemed intent on reminding him about her date with the movie star. It wasn’t every day that a local girl got to go out with a celebrity, and he couldn’t so much as go to the grocery store without being reminded of it. God forbid he go get a sandwich from the diner. The waitress must have had the entertainment channel hardwired into her brain, because she somehow knew what Belle was doing every single moment of the entire weekend.

Still, he had to eat and how was he supposed to anticipate that she would have been photographed kissing the guy? And, more to the point, how could he possibly have predicted that for some reason photos of her kissing him would be front page of the local newspaper, trending on Facebook, and on the entertainment channels that for some reason all the convenience stores were playing.

Felix didn’t have many friends. He was a difficult man to love and a harder one to live with, and he harbored absolutely no illusions as to people in general enjoying him or his company – with the perplexing exception of Belle French. The first day he’d met her, she’d laughed at his stupid quip about the lack of nightlife in Storybrooke and he’d been completely smitten with her ever since. It hadn’t been much of a problem before now. She didn’t date much and it was a small matter to make sure she had flowers at work on her birthday (from _a friend_ ) and Valentine’s (from _a secret admirer_ ) and to make a point of being somewhere nearby so he could see her face when she got them.

Quite simply, he’d never felt jealous of her before because his tentative place in her life had always been safe. Even if she had married Michael the mechanic or David from the animal shelter, she would still be in town and still be his friend. This, though, was something that threatened to take her away from him. He wasn’t one of those jackasses who was sure she’d marry a movie star, but this was the first time he’d realized that she might want to leave the town for something bigger and better. And she could leave without ever knowing how he felt.

It was time to suck it up and ask her on a date. He’d do it when she came back. The worst that could happen is that she’d say no, but at least he’d have done his best to keep her around.

He’d tell her when she got back. It was time to be an adult.

 

By the time she was home on Sunday evening, Belle was just ready to climb into bed. It had been an exhausting day with an early wakeup call for her magazine interview which had been followed by a photo shoot and a ride to the airport. She was still jetlagged from the four hour time difference, and air travel in general was always exhausting. 

Unfortunately, she hadn’t anticipated how far that stupid kiss for the paparazzi had travelled in such a short time and from the moment she landed her phone was blowing up with calls and texts from people she didn’t even know beyond saying hello in the street. She didn’t realize until she got home and checked her computer that somebody had tracked her down to her Twitter account and her mentions were completely full of angry fans calling her an ugly slut. She didn’t even have the energy to block them, she just deactivated her account and quickly locked down her Facebook account so that she couldn’t be searched. 

She didn’t know why she hadn’t anticipated this, but she really hadn’t. Somebody had to have posted her name publicly, because the magazine article hadn’t come out yet. A part of her wanted to see if she could track down the source of the leak, but the idea of wading through the tag on Twitter was just awful. The things that had been in her feed were bad enough, she didn’t want to see what people were saying when they didn’t think she’d see it.

Finally, she turned her phone off completely. She felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it. It had been a silly joke for the cameras in an otherwise perfectly normal first date! Who the hell cared? It’s not like anybody on Twitter had a chance at Sage themselves, they were just angry because she’d met him. This was the part of celebrity fandom that she hated, and now it was pointed directly at her.

Belle took a shower and fell into bed. It was too early to be asleep, but screw it. She didn’t want to deal with the rest of it just yet.

 

The plus side of going to bed so early on Sunday was that she was at the library bright and early on Monday morning. She had stocking to do and the days when she was there early always made her feel a little bit more productive. Usually she’d have treated herself to a coffee on the way there, but she didn’t want to talk about what had happened over the weekend so early in the day and Ruby would know about it all. So she put a pot on as soon as she got to the library and set herself to reorganizing all the displays. By the time it was time to actually open, she felt a lot better. Getting at least this much under control helped a lot.

Of course, once the doors were unlocked she was once again reminded of the situation she was stuck in. Not four minutes after she’d opened to the public, her first patron arrived. The man spent more than a few minutes openly staring at her while he walked through the stacks, and before he’d even finished choosing something two more people had come in.

By noon, Belle’s nerves were about shot. It was bound to be her busiest day ever, with half the town having already been by to gawk at her. At least Ruby brought her lunch, but even then there were a half dozen people around the circulation desk waiting to hear whatever titillating details she might have to offer about her weekend.

“What the hell is going on?” Belle asked her friend. “So I kissed a celebrity? So what!”

“Wait, you don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“He was photographed going into your hotel!”

“He walked me to my door,” Belle said. “Of course he went into the building with me, but he left.”

“Well, that’s not what the tabloids are saying.”

“Are you _kidding_ me? Why would they say that?”

“I’m sorry, you’re familiar with how tabloid media works, right?”

Belle groaned and leaned her head onto the desk next to her sandwich. This was nuts.

“So you didn’t have sex with him?” Ruby asked her.

“Of course not,” Belle said. “We only kissed because they asked us to and I thought it’d be fun.”

“Was it?”

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer not to talk about that here.”

“Probably a good idea,” Ruby said. “God, these people are vultures.”

Belle groaned, and then her head shot back up when she heard the sound of books being dropped on the counter. Poor Mr. Gold was standing there looking at her sympathetically and somehow that was the last straw.

“Did you find everything okay?” she asked him as businesslike as she could manage.

“I did.”

She went through scanning his books to his account and printed out the little tags for the return date without looking at him, but he didn’t leave right away.

“Was there something else?” she asked.

“I had two tickets for the ballet this weekend,” he said quickly. “I was wondering if you’d like to go. With me.”

“Oh,” she said quickly, suddenly wishing he’d asked her all this last week when things were so much less complicated. “That’s very sweet, thank you for asking me. But things are a little weird for me right now and I don’t know if it’s the best idea.”

“That’s fine,” he replied, scooping up his books off the counter and backing away. “That’s...I’ll see you next time.”

He practically ran out into the street and Belle felt even more like an asshole. Why the hell couldn’t he just have asked her _before_ she was the fat whore who seduced a Golden Globe winning actor for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy?

“You sure you didn’t sleep with him?” Ruby asked from her seat next to Belle.

“Of course I’m sure, why would you even ask that?”

“Because going out with Mr. Gold would have been a real good way to redirect the rumor mill. At least the local one, it’s not going to do a damn thing for your Twitter.”

“Shit,” Belle mumbled. “You’re right. Stay here.”

She jumped to her feet without waiting for a response and chased Mr. Gold out into the street.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know nothing good happened tonight, but this is the best I have to offer everyone.

Felix was almost back to his shop when he heard Belle calling _wait!_ from behind him. He stopped and turned just as she skidded to a stop so fast that she almost toppled over onto him. He wasn’t sure what to make of this, it was a peculiar sort of masochism to get turned down and then wait for her to catch up to him so he could hear her apologize further or make up some other excuse or yell at him for presuming. All he really wanted to do was lock himself up and hide, but here he was waiting for her to catch her breath not two feet away.

“Did you mean it?” she asked at last, and he hadn’t been prepared for _that_ particular question and all he could do was nod stiffly. Of course he’d _meant_ it, why wouldn’t he?

Belle seemed to mull this over for a little bit and he was sure he was going to die of embarrassment there in the middle of the street before she spoke again.

“Why couldn’t you have asked me five days ago?” she said, sounding somewhere between exasperated and something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on, but instinct told him to just see where she was going with this. “This would have all been so much less complicated if you had.”

He couldn’t swallow and he was about eighty-five percent sure he was actually having a stroke, but he finally managed to get himself under control enough to reply to her.

“How so?”

“Do you have a Twitter account?”

It was a complete non sequitur, and he shook his head prompting her to take out her phone and pull something up to show him. She held the phone in front of his face for a few seconds before she wiggled it and he took the hint to take it and start looking at what she was showing him. He didn’t understand some of the abbreviations or the rather liberal use of emojis, but he knew enough to recognize it as a collection of Tweets by people calling her a slut and picking apart her appearance.

“I didn’t know about this,” he said at last. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not like it’s _your_ fault, but things are obviously kind of complicated right now.”

“Still. It’s not right. Can’t he do anything about it?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I even knew how. It would just be adding fuel to the fire at this point to even acknowledge it. I’m not even responding.”

“So, this is why…” he couldn’t even bring himself to finish that thought. Being turned down was awful, but being turned down _because she was currently a tabloid sensation_ was something he could deal with.

“Yeah,” she said. “Like I said, it’s really complicated.”

“Is this the only reason?” he asked, handing her the phone back.

“I’d have said yes last week.”

“Well, I knew you had that other date…”

“It wasn’t a publicity stunt, not a proposal,” she said with a little shrug. “Anyway, a girl can have two dates with two different men in two weeks.”

“Well, now I wish I’d asked.”

He hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that, but it was the absolute, unvarnished truth. He liked her and he wanted to get to know her. Knowing that he’d had a chance and waited too long was in some way just as bad as being turned down flat.

“I do, too,” she said with a shy smile. “Maybe…” her voice trailed off, but he was not about to leave it at that. He could almost certainly work with _maybe_.

“Maybe?”

“Maybe we could arrange to be in the same place sometime?”

“So, not a date?”

“No, just two people having coffee in proximity to each other or at the same theater to see the same movie?”

“In a town this small it’s almost bound to happen eventually.”

“Exactly,” she said with a bright smile. “I usually like to get coffee at Granny’s before work, so I’m usually there around eight?”

“Eight,” he repeated. “I might be stopping by around then on my way in.”

She smiled and he just felt so relieved that he wasn’t a total idiot that he couldn’t help but smile back.

“I should go back,” she said at last. “I left Ruby watching the desk and there’s a really big crowd.”

“Right. I’m sorry I kept you.”

She waved as she retreated back to the library, and his heart felt lighter as she left. Maybe it wasn’t as hopeless as he’d feared after all.

 

True to her word, Belle was sitting quietly at the counter in the diner when he walked in the next morning. He could see people pointedly _not_ looking at her. Her friend Ruby was bouncing around from customer to customer, leaving Belle alone with a mug. She was fidgeting with her necklace while she waited, but she smiled when she saw him and he almost tripped on his own feet at how relieved she looked – as though she’d half expected him to go home and look her up on the Internet to see what people were saying about her. Which he had actually done, and somewhere around the Buzzfeed article called “People Are Really Pissed This Fan Kissed Sage Gaston” he was starting to get cold feet, but the more he thought about it the more he wanted to be there. It wasn’t fair for her to be in this situation, and it was doubly unfair that she was doing it alone.

He sat on the stool next to her, drawing a little bit of attention (everyone else had been giving her a wide berth as they observed) but it was one of the few empty seats in the diner and after a few moments everyone stopped staring.

“Good morning,” she said quietly, turning toward him just enough that he was the only one who could see she smiled at him.

“Good morning,” he replied. “How was your day yesterday?”

“Oh, you know. The usual – people stalking me, a few calls from E! and People asking for interviews, and my dad called to ask why my nana thinks I’m a groupie.”

“Oh God…”

“Yeah...apparently, Nana really likes the supermarket tabloids.”

“My condolences,” he said. “I’d offer to help, but I don’t know what I could do.”

“I’d rather not talk about it, if it’s all the same to you. How was your day?”

He couldn’t say he blamed her for wanting to avoid thinking about it, but it still left him with the uncomfortable need to come up with something interesting to tell her, but all he could think about was that she’d agreed to meet him for coffee and then he’d spent most of the rest of the day reading think pieces about her. There was the backlash about the kiss, then the inevitable backlash against the backlash and it went around in circles like that with essays on slutshaming and angry Tweets and before long he’d fallen into a rabbit hole.

“I took possession of an estate,” he fibbed. That estate had arrived days ago and most of it was already appraised but she didn’t need to know that and it was all he could think to talk about.

“Yeah? Anything nice?”

“There’s some jewelry and a full dining set that I’m very pleased with. The rest of it I still have to go through, but I’m hopeful.”

“That’s good. I’ll have to come browse the shop sometime and see it.”

Well, _that_ was certainly a nice idea.

“You should,” he said. “I’ll give you the grand tour.”

Belle smiled, and they drank in silence for a little while longer before she finally stood up and paid her tab.

“I’ve got to get to work,” she said. “But this was nice. Just so you know, I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“That’s good to know,” he said. “Have a good day.”

“You too.”

He lingered as she paid her tab and left before he downed the rest of his coffee and headed towards the shop. He was going to have to make sure there was something nice for her to see.

 

Things were starting to look up for Belle. She’d been meeting up with Felix Gold for about a week, and while she was still getting the occasional phone call from magazines and blogs, but when she’d stopped answering her phone for strange numbers they had tapered off. She hadn’t been online or watched television or read the newspaper or any magazines, so for all she knew the planet was overrun by hostile aliens but her life was blissfully free of any drama. Ruby had bought her a copy of her magazine article, but Belle had no intention of reading it until things had calmed down and it was less raw. In the meantime, she was sure her funding was going to go up because of the increase of foot traffic to the library and she had a nice man to meet for dinner on Friday.

She was sort of debating whether or not to kiss him at that date. She kind of wanted to, but the last time she’d kissed a guy it had turned into front page news. Ruby still though that Belle should make a bigger deal of this date to try to at least distract local people from the Sage Gaston issue, but besides the fact that she was pretty sure immediately dating someone would just make people think she was easy, Belle didn’t really want to use his affection for her that way. She didn’t want to use him, even if it would make this whole thing a lot easier.

By Thursday, though, everything went crazy. The first sign Belle got that her life was going to go to hell was Ruby appearing before the library was even open. She’d banned Ruby from any discussion of The Incident, so the frantic knocking on the library door and the Us Weekly gave Belle pause, but she still let her friend in.

“Sage is coming here!” Ruby blurted out before the door was even closed behind her.

“What?”

“I saw it on E!” Ruby continued. “He wrote an open letter to his fans who were bullying you and told them to knock it off – I’d have told you but you wouldn’t let me speak his name – and then he was photographed by reporters getting on a flight to Boston!”

“We’re not _in_ Boston,” Belle reminded Ruby. “He probably was going for a completely unrelated reason.”

“Yeah, except he was only in Boston a couple days before he was sighted at the airport again!”

“That does not mean he’s coming here,” Belle replied, locking the door behind her friend and returning to shelving books. “It was a publicity stunt. Even if he did defend me online, it doesn’t mean he’s coming to visit.”

“Belle, honey, which one of us works at the _one_ hotel in town?”

Belle froze at that incredibly ominous reminder, and Ruby continued.

“Would you like to guess who just took a reservation for a single room in the name of Jacob Watkins?” Ruby said smugly, her smile fading when Belle didn’t immediately figure it out. “ _Jacob Watkins?_ You know, Jacob Phelps and Ian Watkins? His characters in _The Silver Sphere_ and _Right On the Money_? God, how did you even win that contest?”

“Are you serious?”

“Well, I’m serious that apparently you need to watch more movies!”

“Ruby…”

“Yes, I’m serious!”

“Holy shit,” Belle said, feeling her legs start to go out from under her and Ruby had to catch her when she wobbled.

“Belle he’s coming _here!”_ Ruby shouted excitedly. “He’s coming to see you!”

“Holy _shit_.”

“It’s just like a movie! Aren’t you excited? What are you going to do?”

She had no idea – absolutely no idea. There was a part of her that was halfway convinced that Ruby was wrong, but if she wasn’t then that meant he’d come to town. What the hell reason did he have for being there besides seeing her? It was possible he just wanted to apologize, but there was no reason to come here for that. And she had a date tomorrow night with a nice guy who didn’t care about any of this so what was she going to tell Felix?

Just when everything had been going so well...


End file.
